52 | JUNE 24 • 2021
G
race Van’t Hof and Aaron Jonah
Lewis wanted a big, but casual
wedding, ideally in an outdoor
camp-like setting where all their friends and
family members could celebrate with lots of
old-time music and dance. Both American-
roots musicians, they wanted participants to
be able to jam away on their banjos, fiddles,
guitars and mandolins.
Van’t Hof, 35, and Lewis, 39, caught each
other’s eyes at the Knoxville
Stomp in 2016. They fre-
quently appeared on the
same music festival bills, she
with Bill and the Belles and
he with Roochie Toochie or
the Corn Potato String Band,
but they didn’t actually meet
until the 2019 Brooklyn Folk
Festival. Van’t Hof was sitting
in with a pick-up country band and Lewis
was playing with the Lovestruck Balladeers.
They played some tunes together, realized
they both lived in Michigan, and have been
together since.
Van’t Hof moved from Holland, in West
Michigan, where she grew up, to Lewis’
home in Southwest Detroit. She works as a
freelance graphic recorder — taking notes
on meetings and workshops using pictures
instead of words — as well as a musician.
Lewis, who graduated from Hillel Day
School and Interlochen Arts Academy, is
a full-time performer and private music
teacher.
Van’t Hof is the one who proposed, by
taking out an ad in the November 2020
issue of Banjo Newsletter. The ad, which she
drew herself, shows her small banjo talking
to Lewis’ larger instrument and saying,
“Dear Precious and Singular Aaron Jonah
Lewis, I love you as much as I love banjo.
Will you marry me?”
For their ideal wedding to accommo-
date friends and family from out of town
— which describes many of their would-
be guests — they wanted a nice-weather
three-day weekend. To hold it at a camp,
they would have to plan it for a Memorial
Day or Labor Day weekend when camp
would not be in session.
CHOOSING A WEEKEND
This year was out because of COVID.
Next year was also out because both sets
of parents — Bobbie (me) and Joe Lewis
of Detroit and Ellen and Dave Van’t Hof
of Holland — will be celebrating their
50th anniversaries, and the young couple
didn’t want to compete. And Labor Day
weekend 2022 will be Lewis’ niece’s bat
mitzvah. So they scheduled the big blow-
out for Memorial Day 2023 at Habonim-
Dror Camp Tavor in Three Rivers, Mich.,
where Lewis spent many happy summers.
But they wanted to be legally married
in the meantime, so they got a license and
planned a small signing ceremony at their
home, to be attended only by parents and
siblings.
Celebrate
Barbara
Lewis
Contributing
Writer
Mostly Married
Couple plans to complete
the celebration in 2023.
The happy couple
celebrate under the
chuppah in front of a
few family members
and friends.
COURTESY OF THE LEWIS FAMILY